Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Jaago Re in Campus :)

Hi all..
As we informed you on the Republic Day, the Voter's registration event took place in the NMIMS quadrangle yesterday and the event was a big success :) 'Raj' Anand Trivedi, the guy who stars in the Tata Tea commercial for Jaago Re was in the campus.. Yeah the same exuberance, the same ability to engage people in dialogue and the same confidence that he has in the ad were present today... after all, convincing our college crowd to take part in something they have been procrastinating since 18 yrs of age, is not a small thing! lol but yeah the crowd was decent and the registrations progressed throughout the 12 to 6 time period kept for the event.. Kudos to the efforts put by the Yi net team from our college especially Rashi, Vineet (not me silly the other one), Ankit, Priyanka, Jimit and other people too.. it was good for F.A.T.E.ians to work with the Yi guys and together strive to achieve a better future for ourselves.. Jaago India :)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Register to Vote


Where the mind is without Fear and The head is held high,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!

-Rabindranath Tagore

Wishing all F.A.T.E.ians a very Happy Republic Day :)

We, the youth of India always crib that the system is too corrupt to be trusted and think of a hundred reasons of not voting ranging from 'lack of good candidates' to 'total mistrust of the system'. With the elections approaching, we, the youth and especially the F.A.T.E.ians need to register to vote so that we can actually make a difference and bring about the change we so desire and crave for.. We had earlier sent out mailers to all members requesting all to register for voting at Jaagore.com. Jaago re! One Billion Votes is a nonprofit, nonpartisan campaign and does not support or endorse any political candidate or party..

With the help of our tie-up with Yi and CII, Jaagore has agreed to come to the campus themselves to physically register for NMIMS and SVKM people :) So let us all avail of this opportunity and do our bit to improve the conditions in our nation. For our members who are not present in Mumbai, you can register to vote on..

www.jaagore.com

Let us all take the pledge to cast our votes in the coming elections and 'Be The Change' ourselves..
Jai Hind!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Time for action India..

The TOI report in today's paper claims that India is finally on the diplomatic offensive by presenting Pakistan and some key countries with a dossier of incriminating ‘material’ from the probe into the Mumbai attacks, including telephone intercepts between the attackers and their Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers in Pakistan.

 This “Hard evidence’ was presented to the US, the UK and Israel, among other countries which had lost their citizens in the attacks. India will give copies of the documentation to members of the UN Security Council and the G-8 on Tuesday to mount pressure on Islamabad to acknowledge, as a first step, the involvement of its citizens in the attacks, and then follow that up with action against them.  

Whats in the Dossier???
 
-Confession of arrested terrorist Ajmal Kasab,
-Details on his family in Pakistan’s Okhara district,
-Details of the training camps run by LeT,
-Details of the journey to Mumbai,
-Identities of 9 dead LeT terrorists,
-Details of GPS readings from a device recovered from the landing raft on how terrorists navigated from Karachi,
-Satellite phone locations inside Pak from where LeT handlers talked to terrorists,
-Intercepts of Voice Over Internet Protocol through US-based Callphonix between terrorists and Pakbased commanders Zarar Shah, Muzammil, Abu Al Qafa and Abu Hamza,
-Mail ID in Pakistan used by Zarar Shah to open deccanmujahideen@yahoo.com account through which he owned up the attacks..
The question remains whether all this is sufficient?? Should we just sit and wait for the FBI and other international agencies do the dirty work or should we ourselves get into the fray and demand access to the masterminds behind this attack..

As a nation we need to assert ourselves and show the world that we are as keen on saving the lives of our citizens as perhaps the US or Israel are.. Is it sufficient for us to let these countries carry out the investigations for us? Even if Pakistan's reluctance in allowing India access to the alleged terrorists, shouldn't we ask the international powers to help us in getting justice for our citizens ourselves?

Under a SAARC agreement in 1987 on suppression of terrorism and the 2004 additional protocol to that convention, the treaty confers discretion to extradite terrorists even in a situation where the requested state makes extradition “conditional on the existence of a treaty.’’ As its preamble put it, the whole purpose of the 1987 convention, drafted against the backdrop of the Punjab insurgency, was “to ensure that perpetrators of terrorist acts do not escape prosecution and punishment by providing for their extradition or prosecution.’’ 

 The 2004 additional protocol enlarged the scope of the extraditable offences under the 1987 Saarc convention. One of the new extraditable offences is any violent act when its purpose, “by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government to do or to abstain from doing’’ something. Since international obligations undertaken by a country are deemed to be part of its domestic law, the 1987 convention and 2004 protocol show that there is no legal impediment to the extradition of terrorists from Pakistan despite the absence of an extradition treaty with India.

Pakistan’s claim to have a prior right to prosecute the wanted terrorists is also contrary to the SAARC instruments. The govt. needs to invoke its rights and take investigation in its own hands.. India owes it to its citizens.. 

JAI HIND